Wikis

Introduction

“With a wiki you can create simple web pages that groups, friends, and families can edit and work on together.” states the article Welcome to the world of wikis! No need to know HTML coding or be a technology guru, simply find a wiki to participate in or create your own , click on the edit button and add, change or delete information on the wiki and then save. This simple, collaborative process makes wikis a great tool for groups of people to work on a project together with very few technological barriers.


Learning About Wikis
The first time I saw a wikis was a few years ago in one of my first classes for the TLDL program. I had no idea what it was or really what its purpose was. Reading about wikis in the book by Davies and Merchant (2009) helped me get a good understanding of the “what and why” of wikis. Davies and Merchant (2009) discussed Wikipedia as the prime example of a wiki. Their discussion about how Wikipedia can be continually updated, about the participation, authorship and anonymity of Wikipedia, about the argument of bias versus neutrality with Wikipedia and their discussion on vandalism possibilities within Wikipedia helped me to get a more complete understanding of wikis.


After reading about wikis in Davies and Merchant (2009) I explored several wikis at educationalwikis. This actual wiki about wikis gives a concise overview of wikis; how to create them and several examples of how they are being used by others. Now, I figured the next step to gaining a better understanding of how wikis actually work was to create my own. The process of creating a wiki proved to be fairly simple and quite fun. The wiki I created, Read This at Peguis Library, was developed to provide an opportunity for patron’s of the Peguis Public Library to discuss and recommend books from our local library they have read .


With the wiki I created I was able to upload some pictures and embed a video without too much trouble. Not having an undo button was a bit of a challenge. At one point I hit the wrong button and my content on the one page disappeared. Instead of reading about how to get it back I redid the content on that page. Later on in my reading of Welcome to the World of Wikis pages I realized there was a history button that could restore your page back to a previous copy. “Wikispaces will keep every version of every page and make it easy for members to revert back to a previous copy.” Welcome to the world of wikis states.


Although I feel I have done quite a bit with my new wiki I would like to explore it further by changing the logo, the space’s background colour, linking pages and using the navigation bar on the pages. To do this I will have to upgrade from the basic plan which is free to the Plus plan for $50/year or the Super plan for $200/year.


My Personal Learning and Use of Wikis
I could see myself attempting to use a wiki for a collaborative project with my extended family. I have several nieces and nephews who are comfortable enough with technology who could contribute to a family history or a family memory wiki. These family wikis could include family stories, pictures and videos and I think they would be fun to view at family gatherings. At this point I don’t see myself using wikis too much in my personal life but perhaps this will change the more I use wikis in my professional life.

Teaching and Learning with Wikis
The ease-of-use of wikis provides teachers and students with an opportunity to use this social tool in a number of ways as Examples of Educational wikis from educationalwikis shows. Wikis could be used to share and collaborate with other students in your class, with members of your school community, with your local community outside of school or with other students in other communities or countries.



Davies and Merchant (2009) discuss the role of media types and the role they play in shaping our messages and in the sharing of ideas and knowledge. They discuss how printed text such as books provide the opportunity for “strong and clear opinions to be professed perusal through words that will not change over time”(p. 101). At the same time they express the benefits to our students when we introduce them to a tool such as wiki where text making and the sharing of knowledge and ideas is also an important way of learning.


It’s exciting to know I have another tool to introduce to teachers, students and my community. I will continue by exploring more about wikis, adding to the wiki I have created and by continuing to invite others to participate in the wiki I have created for our library.


Conclusion
I am surprised, according to Davies and Merchant (2009) that wikis have not had the widespread popularity that other Web 2.0 applications have had except of course for the very popular Wikipedia. This surprises me because it is an easy to use tool that does not require the user to have a high degree of technology expertise. Creating, updating, and managing a wiki is straightforward and easily managed by those with limited experience with computers and the Intrnet.



References

Davies, J. and Merchant, G. (2009) Web 2.0 for schools: Learning and social participation. New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing.